Hourglass
by On Dark Wings
Summary: Time was running out. Conflicted between hatred and desperation, Arcee's resolve is tested when Starscream makes her an offer she knows she should refuse.
1. Desperate Times

**Title:** Hourglass

**Summary:** Time was running out. Conflicted between hatred and desperation, Arcee's resolve is tested when Starscream makes her an offer she knows she should refuse.

**Setting: **Season 2; falls somewhere after Optimus returns to the Autobots, but before Starscream loses his t-cog. Is not tied to the storyline of season 2.

**A/N: **This was something I'd started in January earlier this year, during my writer's block for my other story, which I'd completely forgotten about. Coming back to it months later, I realised I'd written an entire chapter's worth of content for it and liked where it was headed. Simply put, I want to use this as an excuse to explore a different dynamic between Arcee and Starscream that I feel I can't in the circumstances of my main story. Hope you enjoy :)

**Chapter One: Desperate Times...**

Arcee sensed the first shot coming before she heard it, and quickly ducked into cover amongst the rocks of the barren wasteland just as a beam of energy whizzed past her, straight through the point where her head would have been moments ago.

_'Scrap,'_ she swore, charging her blaster up in preparation for a fight. _'Can't believe I just walked into an ambush!'_

Her reconnaissance mission had just taken a turn for the worse – _'Can't say I'm surprised,'_ she thought, taking in a deep breath of air as she tried to pinpoint where her attackers were shooting from. _'There's not a corner to turn around without bumping head-first into a bunch of 'Cons.'_

Just as there was a break in the line of fire, she swiftly pointed her blaster towards a cluster of rocks above her, up on the higher ground, and fired several times before ducking back behind her own cover – and not a moment too soon, as she spotted the barrel of one of the weapons pointed in her direction.

_'Frag it, a precision squad!'_ She exhaled, briefly clenching her optics shut in disbelief. _'I don't have time for this!'_

Multiple energy beams struck the rocks around her, blackening their surface. Arcee could see the waves of heat radiating off the points of impact; she did _not_ want to get hit by one of those. But she was at a disadvantage, stuck at the lower end of a stretch of uneven ground, and from what she could tell, surrounded from _almost_ all sides.

_'There's one to the left – the closest, but most guarded,'_ she noted, but looking briefly over the top of her cover, saw that it was completely exposed at one side, which she feared would leave her open to attacks from that side. She didn't want to risk it. _'There's one directly behind me, another one above to the right on higher ground, and a fourth, possibly a fifth on the outer edge.'_

But it was difficult to consider clearing the one behind her without leaving her open to an attack from the one to her left.

She stifled a frustrated groan, _'If only I could call for backup.'_

Of course, she just _had_ to run into trouble when the entire team was out running their part of the mission – a mission too important to risk hindering their progress. She sighed in acceptance. She could do this on her own, just like she used to before she joined Team Prime. She just had to think like she used to.

...Speed.

She needed to use her speed against them, and hope that they weren't skilled enough to hit a moving target. Judging by the plethora of missed shots around her, her hope wasn't likely to be misplaced. Still, the worst she could do was underestimate them. She needed to take them out as quickly as possible, no messing around, no nothing.

First thing's first: she needed to get to higher ground.

Without warning, she shifted into her vehicle mode and swiftly accelerated away from the rocks that offered her safety, and drove into the fray, running over the Vehicon over the cover of rocks behind her and driving up the medium-sized slope (in proportion to her) whilst dodging rounds of fire that hailed around her. She could feel the rubber of her wheels heat uncomfortably as they passed through and over steaming hot beam marks, and almost lost control in a skid caused by a direct shot to her back wheel.

_'They sure know how to keep a 'Bot on the edge of her wheels!'_ she admitted, steeling herself as she approached the Vehicon on the higher ground. She transformed and leapt off the ground, her left arm curled in front of her defensively while her right arm tensed behind her. With a resounding 'chink', her right arm blade moved into place, and not a moment sooner was driven straight into the neck of the unprepared Decepticon. The exposed cables sparked and oozed energon until the Vehicon's red visor dulled to nothingness.

_'Well that takes care of one of the-'_

"Ahh!" she yelled in pain, clutching her left shoulder as she shrunk down behind a jagged rock, panting sharply whilst a late volley of beams criss-crossed above her – one of the slag-heads had got her.

"Scrap!" she hissed to herself, feeling her lifeblood trickling down and around the hand she'd placed over the wound. Her left arm was a dead weight. No matter how much she willed it to, it wouldn't move. By some miracle however, she could feel that its link to her t-cog remained intact, for whatever good that would do for her if she couldn't willingly move it any way.

_'It must've burned and damaged a circuit,'_ she concluded, wincing and inhaling sharply through the pain. She knew she'd just have to deal with it for the time being, and hassle Ratchet into fixing it later, who she knew would give her an audio full of a lecture for not being more careful...Well, she _hoped_ it was fixable – but now was not the time to worry about it. She'd bought herself some advantage over the Vehicons by gaining the higher ground, but it was only fleeting – it wouldn't last long, not before, perhaps, they'd decide to call in for backup of their own. She didn't want to think of what trouble she'd be in if that were to happen.

Waiting until the line of fire broke again, she peered over the top of her cover and looked down from the ridge, spotting her previous defensive location and those of the other two Vehicons that were crouched behind rocks. The one that had been behind her was back to his feet, she presumed. The one that had been to her left was in plain sight. Her elevated advantage made it too easy to see over the short cluster of rocks the Vehicon was hiding behind – he was certain to be her next target.

_'Glad I didn't take him out first,'_ she thought, noting the ease at which the Vehicon who had been standing where she stood could have scoped her head and melted her processor with a single, well placed shot. _'I could really use one of them right now,'_ she thought regretfully, referring to their precision weapons; too bad they weren't detachable. They were moulded right into the Vehicons' circuitry. She'd just have to make do with what she had.

Arcee readied the medium-ranged blaster on her right arm.

_'One..Two...Three!'_

Breaking from cover, she fired several shots down at the exposed Vehicon, catching him at the head and his back – fatal shots, for him. He wouldn't be recovering from those. She returned back to her crouched position behind the rock.

She sighed sharply, still feeling the dull throb of the wound on her shoulder as energon continued to leak from it, as much as she tried to ignore it.

_'That's two down. Two, possibly three more to go.'_

The one down below her, and the other further across from her which she'd spotted only briefly. What was making her edgy was the potential fifth, who was either non-existent or hiding too well for her to see where his shots were coming from. Regardless, she knew her next target would be the one dead ahead of her, if only because she could not get a shot at the one below her. Of course, that also meant he could not get a clear shot of her from his point either, which made one thing easier at least.

She slowly raised her head up until she could peer just over the edge –

_Pew pew!_

..And quickly ducked back down before the beams could strike her, one hitting the rock's surface and the other flying overhead.

_'That was too close,'_ she breathed out, her spark beating hard in her chest. She observed that the Vehicon across from her was further away than she'd originally thought – without a precision weapon, it'd be much more difficult for her to land a fatal shot. _'I need a new plan, and quick.'_

She knew that to break out of cover now and charge full speed ahead into the fray would be too dangerous. Her first attempt may have gained her the higher ground, but it came with a steep price – one she couldn't afford to pay again. However she also knew that if things kept going at that rate, she feared she may never reach her objective in time. She _needed_ to finish this up as soon as she could.

At another break in the line of fire, she took her turn in sending a volley of blasts over, but her moment to turn the tables around was over in mere short seconds. Frustration welled up inside her, and it was as if the Decepticons sensed this. From the other side of the battleground, she could hear one of the Vehicons yell over the sound of weapon fire: "You have one chance, Autobot. Surrender to us, and we'll see you delivered to Lord Megatron unharmed!"

Arcee resisted the urge to roll her optics in disbelief. As if anyone was so lacking in processor capacity to accept _that_ offer. Though she had to admit their 'one chance' thing was kind of new – normally they'd shoot first, forget the questions, and drag whatever is left – dead or alive – back to their leader. Naturally, she turned and sent a few blasts their way in reply, but it was all in vain if not desperation. She just couldn't get a clear shot.

_'So much for a higher ground advantage,'_ she scoffed, considering swallowing her pride for the best and calling in for help. With her left arm useless, she was forced to transform her right arm back to normal, leaving her temporarily weaponless. Her right pointed index finger hovered over her communication device as she prepared herself to speak. _'Alright, let's get this over with..'_

A blast of static screamed into her audio receptors at the moment she pushed a button, forcing her to instinctively press her hand back to her device to make it stop.

_'What in the pit was that?'_ she asked herself, trying the communication frequency to the base once more in the hope that it was nothing more than an odd fluke.

_Kssshkkshhhhshhkshhh-_

She turned it off with a feeling of dread welling into her gut.

"Something's not right," she whispered to herself. She knew her device was not broken, and that she had not yet established contact with the base before the static played..._'Something must be blocking the transmission,'_ she deduced with a rising sense of dread.

Before another moment could pass, she spotted something – a projectile, soaring out of the corner of her vision, and then, _BOOM!_

An explosion rattled the ground like an earthquake, and Arcee shielded her head out of instinct despite being behind cover. Heat and debris flew over her position fast, before the dust finally settled down.

_'Frag it!'_ she swore crudely, _'Was that a missile?'_

She quickly surveyed the outcome.

Across from her, where the Vehicon was supposed to be, was nothing but rubble – underneath all of it however, she could see the limp bloodied arm of the Decepticon that had been caught in the blast.

_'Well that takes care of that, but-'_

To her left, she spotted the remaining Vehicon running away from the field, clasping a hand to his audio where his comm device was.

"Unit S-0-5-1, requesting backup at watch-point 3," he spoke. Arcee trained her blaster to his retreating form, all the while listening as his panic rose. "Damn it, why is no one answering! Unit S-0-5-1, requesting backup _now_-!"

So suddenly his speech was interrupted by a hail of sky-fire and the loud hum of an engine that Arcee could not pinpoint when it all had started or how her senses could have been so dulled to have missed it, but in a matter of seconds the retreating Vehicon was knocked down to the ground and was struggling to get back up.

Arcee looked to the sky to pinpoint the assailant's location.

She didn't have to wait long, but no sooner that he emerged did she wish she'd gotten out of there sooner.

_'Damn it,'_ she sighed, blaming herself for not seeing the obvious earlier. _'What the frag is he doing here?'_

The jet ignored her, however, for the time being, and shot straight towards the injured Vehicon like a dart, only slowing as he reached the ground to transform crisply and land beside him, though he towered over the extremely anxious mech.

The Vehicon outstretched a shaky arm defensively, while Starscream stalked him like a predator would to his prey.

"Starscream! What..but you..and Lord Megatron, and—we were ordered to detain you on sight! Wait, what are you doing—_no!_"

Arcee winced but did not look away as Starscream dug his claws into the Vehicon's neck abruptly, silencing him and ripping out his vital cables in one big, bloody mess. He flicked his soiled hand twice to rid it of any remaining droplets, before standing upright to face her.

_'Whatever he's doing here, he means business,'_ she thought, but didn't attack him just yet. She pointed her weapon straight at him though, not wanting to take any chances. There was no way she was about to forget what he'd done to Cliffjumper.

He quickly noticed her offensive stature, and tensed his left arm in response, his claw-like fingers twitching though he boldly made no move to make a defensive decision.

"Hmph, hardly the welcome I was expecting."

She couldn't be certain whether he was hoping for the positive or the negative, but she didn't dwell on it for too long. Her weapon remained unfaltering, meaning business herself as she wasn't in the mood to play one of his games.

"Last I checked, we weren't on friendly terms," she stated coldly. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you down right now."

He remained unfazed on the outside, his expression one of self-confidence as if he had reason to believe she wouldn't shoot him there and then.

"I have a proposition for you, one that will benefit both you _and_ I."

Her weapon hummed threateningly as it charged, "We don't make deals with Decepticons, least of all you."

She figured his appointed patience was starting to waver by the way his optics began to leer at her. Still, he managed to control his temper despite her stubborn attitude.

"I believe you'll make an exception, just this once." He gave her an untrustworthy smirk.

She remained unconvinced. "And what makes you say that?"

"Oh, this and that. I'm afraid I can't tell much of the details without your consenting to participate in..._said_ proposition."

She clenched her teeth frustratedly, _'He's practically asking me to make a deal with Unicron himself.'_

Regardless, there was no way she was accepting whatever 'deal' he had in mind, which she was certain was likely to favour him the most. Her mind was made up the second he'd mentioned such a thing, thanks to her bias against him. Though she did have to wonder what in the pit was going through _his_ mind, coming out all the way here to attempt to strike a deal with _her_ of all Bots, when she _knew_ he knew of her hatred for him. She could just about sense the inevitable face-off between them edging closer and closer, except this time she felt there would be no Bumblebee to stay her hand. But despite its proximity, she refused to let it happen that day, at that precise moment. She had more important things to take care of first.

"I don't have time for this. Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll live.._unfortunately_," she added under her breath. She forced herself to transform, painfully with her injured arm and all, and move away from him, missing the way his eyes narrowed at her and his claws clenched into fists, yet he did not fire.

"And can you say the same for your precious Jack Darby?"

She skidded to a halt so abruptly that she wasn't sure he'd even said anything. She transformed back quickly, and stalked towards him determinedly, a pointed finger aimed straight at him while her left arm remained numb by her side.

"What did you say?"

He was on dangerous ground, and she was standing in a dangerous position. She stood not 20 metres away from him, and he could clearly see that her left arm was injured. She was starting to regret placing herself in such a vulnerable place – she could only hope he wasn't planning on taking her situation to his advantage.

Yet he only stood there with that self-satisfied smirk upon his face, nonchalantly waving an arm dismissively.

"I believe you heard me quite clearly," he replied. "The swift and noble Arcee, overwhelmed by a squadron of ground units, her precious pet taken from her grasp and whisked away by Decepticon forces. I'd say my _former_ associates are having a field day with _this_ blunder."

Arcee's features tightened angrily, her composure hanging on an already delicate thread.

"Look, I'm not in the mood to play around. You either tell me what you know, or I'll-"

"You'll what?" he mocked, "Flail that useless arm about and hope it will _scratch_ me into submission?"

"I still have one good arm, and it's more than I need to take you down right now."

_'Damn it,'_ she thought regretfully without breaking her resilient exterior. _'I need to control this situation fast before it gets way out of hand'_. As much as she hated to admit it, she was in way over her head. _'The last time we had a 'fair' one-on-one, I barely got out alive, and I had _both_ arms intact. Not to mention he was grounded,'_ she added as an afterthought.

He chuckled at her attempted bravado.

"Who are you kidding, Arcee? We both know if you attempt that, you may never live to see your human pet again. That is, _assuming_ he survives what is in store for him."

He let the notion of losing Jack forever sink in, until all she could hear in her audio was the rhythmic beat of her spark.

"Of course, I am not one to let opportunities pass by," he said, stepping closer passively. "As you can see, I am no longer.._welcome_ within the Decepticon ranks. And due to my _sudden_ expulsion, I..uh, find myself lacking in certain resources."

Arcee narrowed her eyes at him.

"So, here is my _generous_ offer: You help me attain a reasonable portion of energon, and I.._assist_ you in reclaiming your human pet."

He grinned maniacally. "Do we have a deal?"

_'Hell no, we don't have a deal,'_ a part of her wanted to scream, but stayed her impulsive side and considered her options should she refuse. On one hand, she could decline and leave peacefully and be on her way, _or_ in declining his offer incite his temper and cause an unavoidable, unstoppable fatal brawl between the both of them (which she felt would not end in her favour, considering her state of well-being). And if she were to end up leaving peacefully? Well, she hoped she could succeed in following a trail leading to Jack and save him from Decepticon clutches – the other side of things should she fail wasn't something she wanted to think about; failure was not and _could not_ be an option.

And of all this, she felt like she could never forgive herself if she let Jack come to any harm. It was her duty to protect him as his guardian. If it was anyone's fault, it was _hers' _for not keeping a closer eye on things when it happened. And she knew she was running out of time to save him, with distraction after distraction after distraction; she could use all the help she could get.

_'But Starscream's?'_ she questioned, unconvinced that he would keep his word on the conditions of his own deal. There was no doubting his reputation for dishonesty and treachery, and she would trust him about as far as she could throw him. When it came down to it, the question remained: Was she desperate enough to employ his help, as desperate as he _may_ be to employ hers?

He was quick to judge her silence, however.

"Should I take your stunned silence as a 'no', then?" he vocalised, stepping back away from her as a show of his preparation to leave. "Very well, but know that this was your only chance to recover Jack Darby alive and in one piece-"

"Wait."

Starscream's wings clicked back into place from mid-transformation, and he stood still on the ground watching her inner turmoil unfold on the outside with a devious glint in his eyes and a half-smile on his face – the look of a mech who was about to end a long argument in his favour.

She sighed to herself, _'I can't believe what I'm doing.'_

But she felt like she had no choice. Even though to do this was like spitting on the memory of her fallen partner, she knew that she could end up losing another partner (who was more like an innocent partisan in all this) if she didn't.

She looked straight at Starscream, who was still intently watching her.

"Energon?" Arcee uttered finally, skeptically. "That's your price?"

"That is my price, femme. Take it or leave it."

A sick feeling welled into her gut, but she didn't speak or complain in protest, not trusting her own words for this.

She simply nodded, silently agreeing to his terms whilst internally hoping she had not just signed her death certificate.

"Excellent," he practically purred. "Now, I believe there are some _details_ that need to be discussed, as promised.."

He began a steady approach towards her (from what she understood he was a mech that had no concept of personal space whatsoever), and suddenly alarms started going off in her head. She acted purely out of an age-old reflex.

"Nuh uh," she vocalised, snapping her right handed weapon up at him. "Let's get one thing straight: You keep your distance, and we won't have a problem. Do I make myself clear?"

His eyes narrowed at her for a split second as he froze mid-step, and was about to make his objections known if not for the hum of her weapon charging up.

_'He can state his _details _from where he's standing,'_ she resolutely decided.

He smartly backed off, and adhered to her condition.

"Fine," he uttered brusquely. "But if I were you, I'd worry less about your petty personal issues if you wish to save your pet in time."

She lowered her arm slowly, regarding him coldly and resisting the urge to correct him for referring to Jack as her 'pet'.

"Now, if there's nothing else you'd like to spring up, I believe we have somewhere we need to be."

**End Chapter One**

I estimate this story will be no longer than three chapters long, depending on the size of the second chapter, which is already underway. As always, feedback and constructive criticism is welcome :)


	2. Call For Desperate Measures

**A/N:** This chapter escalated to ridiculous proportions I hadn't originally intended – at one point it reached just over 6200 words of content in its unfinished state. Consequently, it's taken a lot longer to edit and proof read due to its length. Regardless, I had an absolute blast writing this chapter. Hope you guys feel the same way.

As always, a sincere thank-you to those who've endorsed and given feedback towards this story. Y'all are super cool!

**Chapter Two: ...Call For Desperate Measures**

She'd been right in her initial heading all along when Starscream informed her of the location of a mine, roughly three kliks to the north of their current position. He was certain it was where the Decepticon soldiers would be holding Jack for the time being, not to mention where he'd find his hoard of energon for the taking.

"Here are a set of coordinates," he told her, showing her the location and numbers on a holographic scanner – the area pinged brightly as it periodically detected the energon hot-spot.

"Where does it lead to?" she asked, unsure of what she was looking for exactly.

"An entrance to the mine – you'll know it when you see it," he stated, starting a slow walk away from her.

She hated how shady it sounded.

When she saw his wings snap downwards again, a telltale sign that he was going to transform, she spoke up and stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

He huffed.

"Well I'm hardly going to _walk_ all the way there," he retorted. "I'm a flier. I _fly_ to places."

With that, he transformed quickly and soared upwards into the sky, leaving behind a trail of heat and dust in his wake.

"Show off," she uttered under her breath, before quickly transforming herself and following the coordinates to her destination. She drove dangerously, fast enough that she could feel her tires swerve left and right whenever her mind unfocused on the uneven terrain ahead of her. One slip up and she knew she could end up flipping head over wheels into the dirt at a costly momentum, and in all probability end up damaging another servo.

It was bad enough that she couldn't move her left arm – it was painful enough as it was forcing it to shift and transform with the rest of her body. She felt even more grateful that despite her lack of conscious control over it, it was still _able_ to transform in its damaged state.

_'Just another thing to add to my list of problems,'_ she sighed to herself, checking her coordinates to make sure she was still on the right track.

To top it off, she now had a bargain to keep her word to – that is, if Starscream truly intended on keeping his word. And based on his reputation alone, she would have been extremely skeptical that he was even leading her to the right place if it wasn't for her original heading towards it. But she didn't for one second believe that he truly cared about _his_ end of the deal.

To him, Jack could be and may as well be nothing more than a bargaining chip to enlist her aid in _his_ needs. As she recalled, he said he would do nothing more than to 'assist' her in getting Jack back, whatever that entailed. Which was fine by her, considering she'd been prepared to track the mine down, sneak into its tunnels, snatch Jack out of there and leave the place in one piece all by herself – at least, she felt that was all possible _before_ her arm was shot. So of course, the 'ex'-Decepticon wouldn't be in any rush to hurry things along – he would get the energon he needed in the end, regardless of the outcome of her mission.

It made her own energon flowing through her fuel lines boil just thinking about it – in the end, she could only hope that Starscream truly had no intention to dupe her, but with his notorious streak for treachery being well known amongst them, she couldn't help but suspect that his intentions were not as innocent as he claimed they were.

Ahead of her, she could see a small clearing where the ground was flatter, and spotted a narrower-than-usual opening in the face of the rocky landmark. It wasn't what she expected to see, yet the coordinates indicated that she was at the right place. To the left of the opening was the seeker, who had clearly arrived before her due to his advantage in speed.

He spotted her before she arrived, and she transformed as she reached the area. Still, she kept her distance from Starscream, who was leaning against the wall.

"Took you long enough," he snarkily commented, pushing himself off of it.

She ignored his attitude, her mind only concerned for the well-being of her human charge.

"Let's just get this over with," she said, her eyes darting to the opening before them. Upon closer inspection, she could see that its internal walls were still jagged and roughly cut, as if the Decepticons spent very little time and effort into drilling into the land mass itself – there was no way it served as the main passage into and out of the mine.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asked him warily, hating to accept the fact that she might have never found this particular place if the seeker hadn't given her its location.

He stopped a few steps ahead of her at her question – her hesitation seemed to amuse him.

"An old entrance to the mine," he confirmed factually, with an air of superiority. "Its full excavation was abandoned when the walls were deemed too unstable for mining equipment to pass through."

"And we're going through it?"

"Would you prefer the front entrance?" he japed unkindly, "I hear it's teeming with Decepticon soldiers if that is more to your liking."

She gave him a deadpan glare, but forced herself to get over her apprehension when she realised she was just stalling, and had no idea how much time she had left to get to Jack.

She forcibly stifled every alarm bell that was ringing in her head, and consciously transformed her right hand into her usual blaster, gesturing forward with it towards Starscream.

"Since you're so keen on it, you first."

It was the seeker's turn to show a sign of hesitation, obviously uncomfortable with her weapon out but mostly out of reflex than anything. But whatever it was that crossed his thoughts initially was gone within seconds, and he merely shrugged it off. When she saw that he was complying to her order, she followed him in albeit _very_ cautiously, even though it was hard for her to employ such caution when she was so hell-bent on finding Jack as soon as possible.

It was like her legs were almost begging her to start sprinting at full speed into the depths of the dark chasm, but with the seeker no doubt keeping a look out on _her_ every move, she felt like she was restricted by his presence alone and the knowledge that with her injury, she couldn't best him if push came to shove. And she had a feeling that if she were to opt out of her bargain with him at that moment, it would come to just that.

So she stayed her hand, and her restlessness.

The tunnel was wide enough for three Cybertronians to walk side-by-side in, in the absolute literal sense. No elbow room, no room for wider frames or those with wingspans – Arcee imagined that there could've been no more than two drill operators making a way through the mine when it was first being excavated, that is, before it was abandoned for its supposed instability. So when the seeker's wingspan alone took up two of the allocated spots, Arcee couldn't find a better excuse to follow him a step behind and keep him in her sights, lest he try anything funny.

She quickly decided that his rather unhurried stride was becoming unbearable.

"Can we pick up the pace?" she complained from behind him. "I don't have all the time in the world, and neither does Jack."

He continued at his usual pace, though he turned his head towards her slightly as he replied.

"Contrary to what you might think, I don't need to be reminded of that fact every few kliks," he said casually, masking his irritation.

"Then walk faster," she retorted, her weapon naturally clicking as the plates responded to her mood. He heard the displeasure in her tone, and Arcee didn't doubt that he'd heard her weapon too.

This time, his words weren't so controlled.

"Will you put that thing away before you bring the whole ceiling down on us?"

He was apparently more irritated about it than she'd originally thought, but she wasn't going to give in that easily.

"Not until you give me some information to work with," she replied firmly, noting that his mood had soured. "You might have it all figured out in that head of yours, but you haven't told me anything that confirms Jack is still here."

He seemed more annoyed than anything else, but indulged her all the same.

"Allow me to let you in on a little fact," he started, gesturing grandiosely with his hands as he spoke. "Thanks to your blatant lack of control over your human vermin, it is no secret that the Decepticons would naturally exploit such a..."

He glanced over to her as he paused, trying to find the right word as he noted the rather unamused expression on her face.

"..vulnerability," he finally decided on.

"Oh, I wouldn't look so sullen if I were you," he pointed out as her mood remained unchanged. "It may be the only thing keeping your dearest pet alive."

He seemed to consider something, and made a show of thinking about it.

"Realistically, you should take solace in the fact that if it had been any other earth-bound rodent, it would have been terminated on sight."

The very thought of that made her sick, and she should have been appalled that he'd had the nerve to say that to her. But even as grim as the notion was, she couldn't decide if it was worse than the feeling of utter _relief_ she felt as she understood what he was implying. Jack was too important to the Decepticons to kill outright, if only for the fact that he could be used as an emotional ploy and leverage against her and the rest of the Autobots. She hated that _that_ was their reality, that it was for this reason alone that she used to be so adamantly against letting any of their human allies accompany them on trips, no matter how small.

She wondered at what point she'd forgotten that all. At what point did she feel so used to having them around that she'd forgotten the dangers of letting any of them tag along for kicks? At what point did it _become_ 'just for kicks'? She hated to admit, even to herself, that it had to take a loss to remind her of how fragile their world really was – hers', the rest of her teams', and the young humans whose lives they've changed, both for the better...

_'And for the worse,'_ she finished grimly, wondering how Jack was faring at that moment. Jack was strong, and Jack was smart – he'd be able to hold his own until she showed up – at least, that was what she told herself to ease her own anxiousness.

"So the next thing they'd do would be to bring him to Megatron," she concluded, attempting to hide her dread at the thought it might come to that.

The seeker bristled at the mention of his former leader's name.

"I..suppose so," he considered, clearly trying to avoid the topic – he cleared his throat. "However, it won't be that simple."

"How come?" she queried.

"Have you not yet noticed your inability to contact your team?" he asked with skepticism as the clutter in their path increased, making him crush small loose rocks under the weight of his heeled feet. "Just as well, the Vehicons are, as it stands, stranded until they can re-establish contact with the Nemesis."

The way he was saying it, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to him, led her to her next hazarded guess as it dawned on her.

"Let me guess: _you_ had something to do with it."

Her angered tone did not go unnoticed with the seeker, whose patience was beginning to dwindle.

"What is it with all these pointless questions?" he snapped, his optics glaring down harshly at her over his shoulder. "Of course I had 'something' to do with it, it was entirely my doing!"

She stopped in her tracks, and when he noticed she wasn't following him any more, he stopped a few steps ahead of her, and turned to face her.

"You cut me off from the rest of my team," she told him with barely restrained vigour.

"Don't take it so personally," he interrupted before she could continue. "I merely installed a device in the area to block _all_ communication signals within a range. _And_, for your information, it is the _only_ device stopping the Vehicons from contacting the warship. _Your_ issues are merely a side-effect."

"A 'side effect'?" she repeated incredulously, pointing an accusing digit at him. "You happen to find me and enlist my help _after _planting a comm blocker in the area, and now you expect me to believe this is _entirely_ coincidental?"

"Has it crossed your mind that perhaps it is not there _solely_ for your little pet's sake?" he debated, "Or have you forgotten that I'm a wanted mech amongst the Decepticons for desertion?"

"They can have you, for all I care," she blurted out unthinkingly, though she couldn't say she entirely regretted her words.

It mattered not to him.

"I don't remember asking for your opinion," he said superiorly with a scowl crossing his features. "Now, if you-"

_Crush. Crunch. Crush. Crunch._

Both their heads simultaneously twisted to the darkness beyond their visual range, further down the tunnel ahead.

"I'm telling you, I heard something down here."

The voice was naught but an echo from a source further down the tunnel, but both the seeker and two-wheeler knew it was coming closer towards them.

"We never find anything but crawling earth rodents," a second replied boringly. "Maybe your audio unit is malfunctioning. _Again_."

Both Autobot and Decepticon shared a condemning look, their prior quarrel temporarily forgotten.

"Vehicons. A patrol unit," he remarked quietly.

"You said this tunnel was abandoned!" Arcee whispered harshly to the seeker, who seemed frozen where he stood. He knew as well as she that there was nowhere to hide or take cover to avoid the patrol.

"For mining equipment, not Decepticons!" he reiterated. "I was hoping to avoid the patrol entirely, but _someone_ decided they wanted to stand around and argue instead!"

She glared at him furiously, sealing her mouth shut in a hard line to prevent any angry words from escaping. They had bigger problems to deal with for the time being.

"Look, we don't have the time to point fingers right now," she reasoned, trying to keep her tone calm and level. "Let's just focus on one thing at a time. They find us, and we shoot them before they shoot us back."

_'Simple enough even for him to understand,'_ she added as an afterthought, but he looked none too happy about her suggestion.

"Out of the question – have you listened to a word I've said? If a shot destabilises the ceiling, we could be trapped and buried beneath the rubble in nano-kliks!"

"So what do you suggest we do?" she gritted out impatiently.

He seemed to zone out for a moment, thinking rapidly to himself no doubt as he wrought a plan on the spot, eliminating the limited choices they had one by one in his processor as naturally as he could transform. He'd probably thought of many last-minute escape plans in the past, or at least that was what Arcee thought.

And then he stopped, a sly grin appearing on his features – she immediately didn't like where this was going.

"Turn around."

/\/\/\/\/\

It seemed like a lifetime before the Vehicons finally appeared to them, emerging from beyond only to see, unexpectedly, the two of them standing before them. Automatically, they engaged their weapons, pointing them directly at the two intruders however did not fire. Arcee thought she heard the faintness of a hushed reprimand from one Vehicon to the other – perhaps bragging over their find – but otherwise did not move herself.

_'He better be right about this,'_ she thought to herself, as she maintained a solemn gaze to the ground at her feet, though a small part of her believed he merely wanted to use this opportunity to humiliate her for his own purposes; she refused to let that concept overpower her judgement.

_'Playing as Starscream's prisoner. Again. Never thought I'd live to see the day.'_

Her pride was bitterly wounded, and her injured arm throbbed painfully as both her hands were subject to his unrelenting grip behind her back. As much as she hated to admit it, her own injuries made her out to be the most convincing candidate for their ruse.

Behind her, Starscream stood upright at his full height, towering over not only her but the Vehicons as well, and his wings were poised flat and wide across his back, making him look more larger and intimidating to any onlooker – a stance to befit the role he was playing at, and hopefully enough to fool the Vehicons.

"Starscream," one of the Vehicons acknowledged gravely, "And the Autobot two-wheeler."

"That would be _Commander_ Starscream," the seeker corrected proudly, "And there is no need for those weapons. Lower them, at once!"

From her perspective, one of the Vehicons flinched at the command, his aim at them wavering for a moment until he glanced uncertainly at his partner who remained unshaken, and then matched his alert stance.

"Lord Megatron has denounced you as a traitor. We no longer answer to you," one of them said.

"Tch, then you have not yet heard of my reinstatement as Second-in-Command," he retorted shortly, tightening his grip around the both of her wrists, though she didn't know whether it was out of reflex or if he was trying to communicate something. Either way, she kept her head low and tried not to give herself away.

She had reluctantly decided to place her hands behind her, in the hopes it would make for a more convincing act if the Vehicons were to indeed believe that she'd been captured. Of course, neither of them had stasis cuffs on them to truly make a convincing act, but even if one of them did, she would refuse and rather be buried alive under the rocks and rubble, for there was no guarantee he'd let her out of them once the danger had cleared. Of all things, she believed that if the Vehicons didn't get the chance to see behind her, they would continue to believe them both. There was no reason to doubt it was working, so far.

"You see, as part of our agreement, I've brought Lord Megatron something of a peace offering. Surely you don't intend to keep our Master waiting for such a.._valuable_ asset?" he persuaded, the words slipping out of his mouth like honeyed silver, as if they'd been said and practised a thousand thousand times beforehand.

With the threat of the Decepticon warlord's wrath upon their heads, the Vehicons finally seemed to sober up and come to their final conclusion. Their weapons lowered, and transformed back into their usual servos.

"Forgive us, Commander Starscream. You would have been received more cordially had our communications hub not been offline."

Arcee could just about imagine the devious twinkle the seeker must've had in his optics, and although she was relieved that they'd been successful thus far, she wanted no more than to break from her hold and deal with the two Decepticons herself, for all the time they were forcing them to waste.

_'Just a few more moments, and then we can get back on track.'_

"Contact with the Nemesis has been unsuccessful," the meeker Vehicon reported, "And we have no contact with our squads beyond the mine."

"Your squads and scouts are functioning," Starscream lied easily, "And they report of no hostile activity."

"And our communications, Commander?"

"Nothing to be concerned about. Last I heard, it was Soundwave's issue."

On that part he kept his speech crisp and concise, negating the blame without ever giving the Vehicons reason to doubt him. But really, what else could they believe? Without the communications needed, it was their word against their superior's. Even with their hostilities, Arcee wasn't so blind that she couldn't see how the Vehicons were programmed to be loyal to a fault – a fault which would, in this case, save themselves from a fight.

"Now, this _prisoner_ needs to be escorted to a holding cell until she can be brought to Lord Megatron."

"Understood, Commander," one said. "This way."

The other piped up, "Would you relinquish the prisoner to our care and take the lead?"

Starscream, seeing the Vehicon's outstretched hand reach for Arcee's arm, spluttered out a quick refusal.

"No, no, that won't be necessary."

He saw the look of confusion in their expression, and cleared his throat.

"I..believe this one may be more trouble than she's worth," he said, and nudged her roughly in the back, causing her to cough out a sound of displeasure. _Someone_ was enjoying this a little too much, she thought. "Go on."

When the Vehicons merely shrugged in acceptance and turned to take the lead, Arcee gave the seeker a hard elbow to his gut with a complementary smile. None of which he was too happy about, but all he could risk was a hateful scowl – he seemed to get the message however. He pushed her forward, lightly this time, and she moved forward step by step, wondering when Starscream would give the cue.

She could feel his grip tighten around her wrists again, and thought maybe that he was about to signal her to move, but one of the Vehicons in front of them spoke up, breaking the tense silence.

"It's fortunate that the Autobot won't be the first prisoner among us today," he said. "Lord Megatron will be pleased to know of today's successes."

She was certain Starscream could feel her tense up in his grip – no doubt the Vehicons were referring to Jack. She gave a bit of a struggle, hoping that Starscream would take it as an indication to hold their attack, and ask after Jack's well-being instead.

"Yes, today's report will no doubt hold good news for our Master," Starscream feigned interest. "What of the energon reserves? Has the mine yielded much for our stockpiles?"

_'What is he doing? Ask after Jack, you pit-spawned slagger!'_

"Well enough, Commander. Last I heard, we had two batches ready to be transported to the Nemesis' cargo hold," a Vehicon replied factually, "ETA 20 earth minutes until pick-up."

That got Arcee's attention, her optics lighting up.

"If our communications remain faulty till that point, we can just send for an escort for the prisoners once the Nemesis arrives."

"Either way, Lord Megatron will see to them before this solar cycle ends," the other Vehicon concluded.

_'Scrap,'_ Arcee swore to herself, a sick feeling washing over her. _'20 minutes, that's all we have? We're cutting it close as it is.'_

She tried to catch Starscream's eye, tried to tell him through anything but her vocaliser that they needed to move on and move much faster than they had been, but he wasn't paying attention to her movements.

_'What the frag is he waiting for?'_

The whole situation, her mission, her anxiousness for Jack's safety, the status of the rest of her team, and now _this_, her devil's deal that was truly becoming more unbearable by the second. Everything that had been festering as she felt her time and Jack's ticking away started to pool and bubble as an itch under the plating of her armour, and all she could think about was how she needed to move, to sprint, to fight, anything that made her feel as if she was doing something to advance her mission, the seeker's own agenda be damned.

The relaxed pace of their movement, the cool air of the tunnel and the silence from beyond their point was enough to drive her patience to the edge and over.

Starscream had no way of predicting her intent as she stopped suddenly in her tracks and roughly shouldered him with her uninjured side, breaking free of his grip and causing him to stumble backwards. By the time he'd gained his footing on his heeled feet, it was already too late to stop her.

She was upon the first Vehicon in a nano-second, leaping in the air and unsheathing the blade from her right arm, catching the unsuspecting Decepticon in the back of his neck and severing the vital cables there in one fell swoop. Her momentum brought her and the Vehicon's dying frame crashing to the ground, where she teetered between the border of stability and clumsiness as she struggled to find her foothold without the feeling in her other arm to help balance her.

"Foolish femme!" she could hear the seeker curse from behind her, but she paid him no heed.

By the time she'd found her feet and prepared to launch herself into another melee, the remaining Decepticon had instinctively returned the barrel of his weapon to aim straight at her. Moving faster than she thought she could, she dodged the initial two shots of energy, sidestepping around the weapon's line of sight. One hit the ground by her feet, and as she launched herself at the Vehicon, the other flew past her and broke and blackened a section of the wall right beside the seeker, who barely stifled a gasp from behind her.

And yet, even as she tackled the Vehicon to the ground, upsetting his own balance and causing him to lose his footing, she felt that none of those blasts had worried her as much as the three consecutive ones the Vehicon fired into the air as he fell, right above them into the notoriously unstable ceiling that Starscream had warned her about so often.

When the Vehicon was offline (within seconds after he was tackled), there was nothing but a cold silence between them. It was eerie but familiar, and Arcee welcomed it like an old friend. But within nano-kliks it soon became clear to her that it wasn't at all, and wondered how something as crystalline as it was to her now had been so clouded just moments ago.

"You.." the seeker started cautiously, staring up at the ceiling with wide red optics and downward wings whilst tip-toeing towards her as if he expected it to crack and fall the instant he looked away. "What manner of madness possessed you to go and do that?"

"It doesn't matter now," she rationalised, dusting herself off and pushing herself up onto her feet, taking her own glance up at the ceiling.

"Do you have any idea what you could have done?"

He was cruel and critical of her actions, not in the way that a Decepticon would be to an Autobot, but in the way an elder would be to his charge. She hated the tone he used to belittle her, as if he were treating her like a child, and how he towered over her even now, making her feel small.

"I only did what you couldn't do," she retorted sharply, refusing to let him patronise her. "What we need is-"

_Crck, cr..ck..crck.._

Her head snapped upwards towards the ceiling, whilst the seeker froze in place, tensing as his audio receptors picked up the noise.

They both recognised the sound for what it was, though perhaps Starscream seemed to understand what it truly entailed better than she did at that moment.

"You fool.." he gratingly condemned, his optics almost comically wide at a spot in the ceiling, which had begun to split and spindle like a web across the array of jagged bumps and indentations. He unconsciously started to step back deeper into the mine. Tiny flecks started falling from the ceiling.

"I don't suppose you have some _genius_ plan for _this?_" he mocked.

A second, larger wave of rocky flecks started to cascade from the cracks, brushing uncomfortably on her face, and she winced.

She uttered only one word, loud enough for the both of them to hear.

"Run."

She couldn't truly say she had an accurate depiction of the moments that followed. All she knew was that she'd ran, pushing her tired body to its limits to avoid the cascade that followed them as the ceiling collapsed behind them. Starscream was somewhere behind her – his lanky, awkward shape did not make him an ideal runner – but they didn't have to run far. In truth she could have said they'd merely made several big leaps to avoid the falling chunks of rock and it would be no less true.

It seemed to end as soon as it began, although at some point towards the end, she'd leapt as far as her legs could push her, and landed prone on her belly with her one good hand covering her head. She was vaguely aware of the dull throbbing on her injured shoulder, and a litter of rocks kicking up at her feet as they settled into place.

It hurt to move. Her joints ached and there was energon running down her arm again, but she ignored it all. Slowly, she forced herself back up on her feet, openly clutching her injured shoulder.

A few meters behind her, she could hear the seeker scramble to kick off the smaller rocks that had covered him halfway up his legs, moving forward on all fours until he was unburdened of the weight. From what Arcee could tell, he was otherwise uninjured.

Starscream stood up on his feet, unsuccessfully attempting to brush off the thin coating of dust overlying his armour whilst muttering lividly to himself and cursing her name.

She turned her head around to face the mess behind her, cringing as she saw that the boulder-like rocks that had once been part of the ceiling were now stacked on top of each other, rock face to rock face like a flawless jigsaw puzzle. She could see no cracks or weak point in the structure, and to even think of _digging_ their way out through that was akin to suicide; if the Vehicons didn't get to them first, then surely they'd be crushed the second they remove an integral part of the support.

"Are you quite satisfied with yourself?" he reprimanded, stumbling in an awkward limp towards her, though he stopped a few steps short from where she was standing. "Your idiocy almost got us terminated!"

She wanted desperately to match his anger, to find fault in his own plan but found that she couldn't bring herself to do it. Her argument was weak – no matter how much she wanted to push the blame on him, she knew deep down that there was no evidence to back her claim. She was responsible for this, no one else.

"You heard what that Vehicon said," she tried reasoning. "We have 20 minutes until the Nemesis arrives, even less now. I didn't come all this way to watch you befriend the 'Cons."

"Don't you dare push the blame on me, Autobot!" he sneered, his pride wounded. "It wasn't _my_ processor that decided to glitch at random, as I recollect quite clearly!"

He was near hysterical now, towering over her hunched form, and as much as she hated to admit, he was much more intimidating when she could practically feel his wrath emanating from him. She could feel the wound on her shoulder throb painfully where it had reopened anew; she cradled her right arm against her gut.

"The plan was to take them out once their guard was down!" she refuted defensively, cringing as she decided to make her case. "We had ample opportunity to take them out safely, and still you did nothing. I did what I had to do."

"Yes, and look at how _brilliantly_ that turned out."

She didn't know why she was trying so hard to make him understand.

"Has it crossed your mind that we need to be out of here before the Nemesis shows up?" she said forcefully, almost yelling it out.

"Yes," he stated simply, "Of course, if you hadn't just blown the perfect exit to smithereens, my escape plan would have worked!"

"_Your_ escape plan?" she huffed, venting in a deep breath to calm herself as a wave of realisation washed over her.

His escape plan. _His_.

_'Of course,'_ she shook her head lightly, scolding herself for ever thinking otherwise. _'Of course that's exactly how he'd play it.'_

An escape plan. _His_ escape plan. The one she hadn't heard about, and the one she doubted he would have ever shared with her.

_'Slag it,'_ she cursed.

Had she become so disillusioned by her desperation that she had also forgotten about how manipulative the ex-Decepticon could be?

_'No,'_ she stopped herself in thought. _'No, denounced from the Decepticon ranks or not, he'll always be a Decepticon on the inside.'_

She wouldn't forget that again. She _promised_ herself she wouldn't forget that again.

"I should've known," she said out loud, more to herself than to him. "You never intended to get either of us out safely. Only you."

He made no effort to deny it.

"What does it matter what I intended now?" he complained hopelessly, gesturing to the impassable wall behind him. "Thanks to this mess you've created, you're no less stuck here than I am!"

She supposed that could've been the only upside to their new situation.

"So now we're left with the main entrance," she said rhetorically. The entrance known to be swarming with Decepticon forces left and right.

"Yes," he said dismally anyway, letting out a pained groan as he placed his hand to his head. "Know this, femme: if you don't fall in that unavoidable fight, I'll find a way to terminate you myself."

On that threat, she didn't doubt him for one second.

**End Chapter Two: ...Call For Desperate Measures**

Finding an end for this chapter was difficult – however off this ending may be, it was the best I could come up with without taking away from the next chapter. I have a feeling the next chapter might be another really long one too, so as always I'll leave progress update messages on my profile every now and then. See you then!


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